If you type “good leadership qualities” into Google, you’ll find a slew of articles arguing that practically every leadership quality is the “most important.”

I’m not here to argue that creativity or communication is the be-all and end-all of leadership traits. Rather, I’ve put together a list of 11 qualities of leadership that are all equally important and illustrate the impact they can have on both employees and overall business. Each of them will help you on your journey as a leader.

1. Integrity

A leader with integrity is a leader who values consistency in all their decisions. It means doing the right thing regardless of the circumstances. Teams count on leaders to have integrity. It not only assures them that they are making the right decision but also provides them with a stable direction as a team.

Leaders without integrity are unpredictable in the worst way. Ultimately, their teams can’t be sure they can count on them.

Leaders who are aware of their weaknesses are not only able to address them. They’re also able to hire and work with people those who make up for their deficits, which strengthens the overall team. Self-awareness also allows leaders to realize that the best idea may not be their own but someone else’s. Such awareness allows the team to move forward on the best path rather than the leader’s path alone.

3. Empathy

Empathy is often said to be related to weakness. Yet, leaders who lack empathy are those who end up wreaking havoc across their domains. It’s not hard to think of a time when a leader who cared little for the lived experiences of others didn’t have to be toppled.

Empathetic leaders are more courageous than their counterparts because they promote well-being across their team while simultaneously driving forward to achieve positive results.

4. Insightfulness

Insightful leaders avoid several of the greatest pitfalls a leader can face. They don’t advocate strictly for their own ideas. Instead, they keep an open mind to better ideas.

What is more, they don’t let their past get them down. Insightfulness also allows a leader to learn from past failures to forge a new and better path forward.

5. Generosity

Generosity is a key and undervalued characteristic of a leader. Being generous doesn’t only mean being generous with money. It also means being generous with time, intent, and information.

Being generous makes a leader more supportive. Moreover, it inspires their team and other leaders to also give what they have to the team. Without a generous leader, you may end up with a team where everyone is out for themselves. It’s almost impossible to reach a goal on time and on budget if the whole team is only worried about themselves.

7. Innovation

Being innovative is a multifaceted characteristic. It requires having a strong focus, as just mentioned, building trust, and having excellent vision. These characteristics and abilities together allow a leader to be innovative in thought and deed. Most of all, they all allow for leadership that inspires innovation across the team.

8. Persistence

Persistence is complemented by insightfulness because it also allows leaders to push forward even after failure.

This trait is often associated with never giving up. But it doesn’t necessarily correlate with it. It’s also about knowing when to give up on one strategy and pivot to a new strategy. Persisting is a mode of overcoming that is essential whenever you run into a problem.

9. Transparency

A transparent leader is someone who is open and honest about their ethical intentions.

Transparency solves problems faster. It builds teams and fosters authentic relationships. People know they can trust their leader even when circumstances are dire. Ultimately, transparency pushes performance to its highest levels. And true leaders can’t operate without it.

10. Authenticity

Think of something more exhausting than dealing with a manager or colleague whose enthusiasm is inauthentic. Pseudo-authenticity builds pseudo-relationships that not only fail to serve the team but eventually drive them mad.

Authenticity means being truthful and open while remaining positive. It’s a skill that requires practice and commitment, but it always pays dividends.

11. Stoicism

With all this talk about authenticity and transparency, it seems strange to consider stoicism as an important leadership quality. But stoicism doesn’t mean perfecting a poker face even in the face of danger. This position can be too easily misinterpreted as standoffishness or arrogance.

Rather, stoicism is more akin to the practice of self-control. Stoicism doesn’t need to be used every day. But it is an imperative in the most difficult of times.

3 Bad Leadership Qualities to Avoid

1. Deception

The art of deception may take you to where you need to go, but it will never get you where you want to be.

Lying in any shape or form undermines confidence in you as a leader. And some leaders believe that’s fine as long as they stay in power. But how much power can you really have if your whole team goes out of their way to avoid or undermine your leadership?

Deception is a long and winding road to a loss of credibility and in some cases, the loss of your position.

2. Manipulative

Being manipulative should always be avoided. Resorting to these tactics suggests that you have neither the confidence among your team to lead them nor the ability to lead them using positive techniques – even if you tried.

Manipulation doesn’t inspire or empower employees. All it does is foster resentment and create atrophy. And atrophied teams get nothing done.

So, if you’re ever inspired to manipulate a group to get them going, remember, it is far better to persuade employees.

Manipulation is for managers who think about the now. Persuasion is for leaders who can see the big picture.

3. Intimidation

Intimidation seems like a useful way to light a fire under the bottom of a lazy employee. But have you ever thought about what goes through the head of an employee who is working not because they’re inspired but because they’re scared?

They’re partly focused on their work. But they’re more focused on the threat. They’re not doing their best work, and all you’ve done is finished a task and damaged a relationship.

Remember, it’s all about the big picture. These tactics may work once, but they ultimately destroy your ability to lead. Instead, you become just another faceless manager.

If you’ve been paying attention, you noticed that these leadership qualities aren’t single qualities. They interact in ways that support your leadership abilities as a whole. Ultimately, leadership requires a dynamic of different traits that will help you meet every challenge that comes your way.

They do minimal work, are aggressive know-it-all braggers, and yet life’s pleasures seem to come to them quickly and easily. They are charming to upper management, yet belittle the others around them with sarcastic and rude comments. Upper management: you, have no clue about their insufficient work performance, integrity or inappropriate behavior. Because they are so cunning and use others to do their work. They then take credit for their team’s work and use those successes to self-promote.

It makes you cringe to read the description, doesn’t it? Thankful that there is no one like that in your organization? But how would you even know? So fooled by superficial charm, many of the most savvy among us have made the mistake of hiring a malignant narcissist. And while not quite a phenomenon, the scenario is becoming more prevalent, or at the least, more “talked-about.”

3 Signs You Have Hired a Narcissist Manager

At the workplace, the pathologically narcissistic manager can be, on one end of the spectrum insensitive or conceited and exploitative or abusive at their worst. While some, if not many, managers exhibit these tendencies from time to time, especially in high-pressure and stressful situations, a true narcissist tends to perpetually display the following characteristics.

Insensitivity to Employees

The most common sign of a narcissist manager is the casual disregard for their team’s reasonable feelings and needs. The narcissist boss carefully chooses “favorites,” and will often show indifference towards others as individuals.

The opposite of an emotionally intelligent and empathetic leader, when a team member is over-stretched with work, feeling ill, or simply having a bad day, a narcissistic manager will respond with: “So what!? This is not my problem – You deal with it.”

A narcissistic manager may also attempt to exploit their team without proper compensation or regard for their rights, frequently assigning more duties without extra pay, or commonly denying the reimbursement of expenses.

Uses Their Team as an Extension Self

Another prevalent sign of a narcissistic manager is their tendency to use team members as personal assistants. Tasking them with duties far above and beyond their job description. Examples may include asking employees to run personal errands, take on inappropriate chores, work on pet-projects, or even assume various management responsibilities —all without proper compensation or acknowledgment.

Is a Name and Status Dropper

A common trait of a narcissistic personality is the habit of name and status dropping. They seem to enjoy reminding people of an important degree they possess, a prestigious school they went to, exclusive groups they’re a part of, VIPs they mingle with, high-profile projects they’re working on, or glowing praise they received from someone.

They need to constantly appear important, with an overblown and exaggerated sense of themselves. Many narcissists’ offices have been turned into halls of self-aggrandizement. Think: Gold nameplate on the desk, multiple awards and trophies on the shelves, and walls plastered with credentials, certificates, recognitions, status photos, and images of “heroism” or “adventure.” While there’s nothing inherently wrong with displaying one’s accomplishments, the pathological narcissist tends to be “in your face” and over-do it. He or she wants to make sure you’re impressed.

Other Characteristics of a Narcissist

Research shows NPD individuals exhibit the following behavioral characteristics:

Lack empathy and compassion.

The need to be right.

Poor listening skills, filtering only what they want to hear.

They are resistant to coaching or mentoring.

Control and dominate meetings.

They take competitiveness to an unhealthy level.

They dispose of employees who either do not agree with them or are independent thinkers.

Narcissists tend to gravitate toward professions which guarantees them an abundant supply of willing co-dependents. This makes several vocations most attractive to them:

Teaching

Clergy

show business

corporate management

medical profession

Military

law enforcement

Politics

What to Do About it?

Unfortunately, as they move up the corporate ladder, these characteristics become more and more apparent. We all hope that narcissistic leaders do not make their way into our organizations, as the result is an insidious and slow destruction of morale and workplace culture. However, what about all the damage they cause along the way? Individuals who fit the criteria for narcissism at any level are more likely to engage in counterproductive work behavior that harms the organization and the workforce. This is especially true when the narcissistic leader’s self-esteem is threatened. This makes firing a narcissist a dicey proposition.

One of the best ways deal with the problems brought on by narcissistic managers is to avoid hiring them in the first place. While there is no guarantee that a narcissist can’t slip through undetected, being aware of the personality traits, looking for red flags during interviews, and thoroughly vetting a candidate’s previous experience, personal, and work history can help you avoid the fallout later on.

If you are like most managers, you have made your share of mistakes. We learn, improve, and move forward. Did you know, however, that there are a set of mistakes managers just like you and me, make consistently? Here are the top four.

1. We Don’t Ask for Input.

Research shows that today’s workforce needs to feel like they have a say in what happens to them and the company for which they work. While most employees are pretty reasonable and don’t feel the need to voice their opinion for every detail, it is important to include them on both the big picture decisions and the minor day-to-day housekeeping. When you don’t ask for your people for input, especially when it directly impacts their job, employees get the impression that they do not matter.

2. We Ask for Input, But Don’t Use it.

Perhaps worse than never asking is asking and then ignoring. This can have a negative impact because employees often think you already had your mind made up before you asked. This leads to mistrust and cynicism. Don’t let your team believe their manager was just checking off a box when you do ask for input.

3. We Don’t Take Time to Explain “Why.”

We all want to know why a decision was made or why things are going in a different direction. Simply being told what is happening isn’t enough. Explaining the “why of things” won’t ensure your team is happy with the outcome but they will feel like they understand their situation better.

Furthermore, not explaining why may cause employees to jump to the following conclusions:

My manager doesn’t know what is going on.

My manager is hiding things from us.

Just take a little time to explain things and it will go a long way with people.

4. We Force our Team to Work Chronically Under-staffed

Most businesses today are cutting costs and trying to run lean. This causes a tipping point where your best employees are feeling the most stress. While running understaffed for a short campaign can actually rally a team and create unity. However, after they have faced the adversity, they have to have some relief. Running your team under-staffed is a recipe for burnout.

Our strategy focuses on enabling our clients to recruit the right people for the structure in which they will perform. Please contact us to learn more about our expertise in Executive Search for Commercial Leadership positions in Medical Device and Biotechnology; including Marketing, Strategy, Sales Leadership, Training, Development, etc. We look forward to the opportunity to help you consistently improve your performance and your business!

One of the pernicious effects of cardiovascular disease is that it creates scar tissue on the heart, which in turn disrupts normal pumping of a person’s blood, a phenomenon that can lead to heart failure due to cardiovascular disease. However, according to News Medical Net, a researcher at the University of Texas Southwest Medical Center may have found a way to address this problem using a cancer drug.

Dr. Lawrence Lum, Associate Professor of Cell Biology, was working on a drug that would target a molecule that promotes tissue regeneration, which can contribute to the growth of cancer tumors. The so-called Porcupine enzyme is essential for the operation of this molecule. Lurn and his team noticed something strange about a porcupine enzyme inhibitor they had developed in that it caused the number of dividing heart muscle cells to increase. The inhibitor could be used for regeneration of heart muscles after a heart attack, avoiding much of the scarring that takes place.

To test the theory, Lurn induced heart attacks in mice and then treated them with the inhibitor. Not only did normal heart action return far more than would ordinarily be the case, but scarring was decreased as well. The inhibitor would only have to be used for a short time, thus lessening any side effects.

The next step for the development of the heart regeneration drug will be to go into clinical trials which Lurn hopes will occur within the next year or so. If and when the inhibitor becomes available in a clinical setting, deaths from heart failure could be vastly diminished even for those patients who have suffered heart attacks.

Our strategy focuses on enabling our clients to recruit the right people for the structure in which they will perform. Please contact us to learn more about our expertise in Executive Search for Commercial Leadership positions in Medical Device and Biotechnology; including Marketing, Strategy, Sales Leadership, Training, Development, etc. We look forward to the opportunity to help you consistently improve your performance and your business!

Summer is on its way; there are a million things you want to do, other than work. For anyone, from management to the C-suite, it can be difficult to stay motivated. After all, you are expected to motivate and encourage your team through their periods of demotivation. I’ve come up with a few ideas. They aren’t revolutionary, but I do hope you will find them —motivating.

Love Your Work

Loving your job is not only “nice-to-have”, rather it is essential to our overall well-being. After all, the workplace is the where we spend most our waking hours. Being unhappy at work leads to being unhappy at home, which is pervasive in our society. At some point in our lives, we have all worked at a job that we didn’t necessarily enjoy. It paid the bills and kept you busy but could you imagine spending the rest of your life there? Being at a job that you don’t love can not affect you both mentally and physically, and it can also impact the company that you work for.

Believe in What You Do

In today’s cynical world, it is a great feeling to believe that what you do is changing other’s lives for the better. Entire companies are founded on this principle alone. It is also one of the driving factors behind Millennial recruitment. The opportunity to do good doesn’t end at the office; studies show that companies who engage the community around them are growing at faster rates and enjoying higher job satisfaction scores than companies who are not as altruistic and involved.

Make People Proud

Be the kind of boss that your employees are proud to work for. Create a culture that your employees are proud to call their own. Also, find pride in your team. Acknowledge their contributions and let them know you are proud of their accomplishments, as well.

Focus on the Big Picture

When the day-to-day is too mundane or repetitive, it can be very demotivating. By focusing on the big picture goals you, your team, or your company have set, you can find the motivation you need to lead.

Staying motivated in today’s business environment can be difficult. Yes, there will always be times you’ll lose heart, get busy, or become tired. But when you take responsibility for motivating yourself and others, you are better able to lead, inspire, reach your goals and leave a mark. What is more motivating than that?

Our strategy focuses on enabling our clients to recruit the right people for the structure in which they will perform. Please contact us to learn more about our expertise in Executive Search for Commercial Leadership positions in Medical Device and Biotechnology; including Marketing, Strategy, Sales Leadership, Training, Development, etc. We look forward to the opportunity to help you consistently improve your performance and your business!

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